Peculiarities of the Development of the Lithuanian Labour Market Policy (Situation analysis and development prospects)

Vladimiras Gražulis, Boguslavas Gruževskis

Abstract

The article deals with the issues of Lithuanian labour market policy development from the restoration of independence in 1990 till 2008. In view of various factors impacting the situation in the labour market, the article proposes stages of the labour market development that serve as a basis for their analysis and assessment. The stages are defined in connection with changes in the labour market and management environment which impacts the employment policy and are reflected in the implementation of the existing policy. According to the authors, for the purpose of the analysis, the analysed period might also be divided into other stages on the basis of other indicators (e.g., by the dynamics of unemployment only, by wage developments, by adoption of legislation relevant to the labour market policy, etc.). The article invokes scientific, methodological and statistical information to conduct a comparative analysis and assessment of analytical findings as well as to briefly present findings of the applied Expert Interview approach. The study evidences that in 18 years the Lithuanian labour market policy has undergone a long road from the then poorly understood national labour market and unemployment problem (resulting in passive labour market policy predominantly followed at the first stage, underdeveloped system for reliable regulation of employment of local residents, insufficient attractiveness of labour market authorities for job seekers, eventually making most of them use the servines of “unofficial labour market”), through EU pre-accession period and harmonisation of the Lithuanian labour market policy with EU legislation, up to implementation of the common EU employment strategy. This article is the first attempt of such a kind to provide with an analytical assessment of the changes in the development of the labour market and peculiarities of its management in the independent Lithuania. The article contains practical and theoretical insights on changes in the labour market and prospects of the labour market policy.